New York -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- In a recent piece by prominent Iranian cartoonist Mana Neyestani , we see one of his favorite characters -- a cantankerous grandfather who along with his two grandchildren is a solid supporter of the Green Movement against the regime in Iran -- having managed to tie up Larry King inside a closet and trying to disguise himself as the world renowned talk show host in order to get to interview Mahmoud Ahmadinejad .

Sporting his thick moustache and holding a list of tough questions in hand , the grandfather is charging out of the closet yelling at a CNN producer , `` Get out of my way ! The language of this Mr. President only I understand , '' while the producer is baffled by the thick moustache that `` Larry King '' has suddenly grown .

The point of the cartoon is a deep and pervasive sense of frustration that Iranians all over the world have with the inability of prominent American journalists and talk show hosts to handle the slippery Ahmadinejad . Christiane Amanpour , Charlie Rose , and Larry King in particular are being criticized for providing Ahmadinejad with a global forum to say whatever nonsense he wishes without enough of a serious challenge to his statements -- some of which are flat-out lies .

Since the massively contested presidential election of June 2009 , scores of peaceful demonstrators have been arbitrarily arrested , tortured , and murdered ; prominent human and women 's rights activists , reformists , and labor union leaders have been arrested and subjected to Stalinist show trials and given long and punishing prison terms ; the leaders of the opposition Green Movement have been systematically harassed and intimidated ; the universities have gone through yet another round of ideological purges ; yet another cultural revolution to silence and suppress non-conformist ideas is well under way ; an entire cadre of independent-minded journalists have been forced into the indignity of exile -- and yet few of these atrocities manages to gain much attention in the conversations that these prominent American journalists have with Ahmadinejad .

That sense of frustration is not limited to Iranians . Jon Leyne , the distinguished senior BBC correspondent has written a wonderful essay discussing the difficulties of interviewing Ahmadinejad . Mr. Leyne points out how Ahmadinejad succeeds `` in moving the agenda onto a ground of his own choosing , and few , if any , of the Western journalists who have interviewed him have scored many points off him . ''

The former USA Today correspondent Barbara Slavin has also written an article , `` How not to get played by Ahmadinejad , '' in which she too testifies that the `` Iranian president has perfected the art of slipping and sliding around even the most seasoned interviewers . ''

Perhaps the best example of how Ahmadinejad manages to slip away from hard questions is when Christiane Amanpour asked him about the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani , a woman charged with murder and adultery and originally condemned to death by stoning .

In response to Amanpour 's question , Ahmadinejad point blank said that this report is false and Ashtiani has not been condemned to death by stoning -- which was a plain lie .

In anticipation of Ahmadinejad 's trip to New York , the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran had in fact prepared a full preparatory list of atrocities perpetrated under the administration of Ahmadinejad 's for American journalists -- with key facts and crucial issues that they might raise when interviewing him .

To be sure , Amanpour did ask Ahmadinejad about executions increasing fourfold since he took office , as well as about the Iranian regime taking action against opposition leaders , including raiding their offices . And in Larry King 's case , after interviewing Ahmadinejad he had a follow-up conversation with Fareed Zakaria , the host of CNN 's `` Fareed Zakaria GPS , '' in which the evasive answers of Ahmadinejad were put in proper context with more detailed attention to the internal atrocities in Iran . But still the balance of the result tipped heavily in favor of Ahmadinejad 's rhetorical one-upmanship .

Slavin has suggested that `` reporters need to be armed with in-depth knowledge of Iran 's economy , politics and society -- and even then , they may have difficulty getting Ahmadinejad to admit the truth . '' But that is not the modus operandi of a journalistic culture that is conceptually geared towards geopolitics and `` international '' politics rather than domestic matters .

Ahmadinejad always wins in these encounters because he points to other atrocities by redirecting the question at the questioner , and there are plenty of atrocities around the globe .

The other factor is the language barrier between Ahmadinejad and his interviewers , which he strategically uses to his advantage . `` Mr. Ahmadinejad 's technique , '' Leyne points out `` is aided by the fact that most of the foreign interviews are carried out in translation -- leaving the journalist less scope for jumping in , and less time to cross-examine . ''

Leyne 's young colleague , Bahman Kalbasi of BBC Persian has now become a Facebook phenomenon because he accosted Ahmadinejad in a hallway at the UN and shouted a succession of questions at him : `` Mr. Ahmadinejad why do n't you talk to Iranian journalists ? Why do you just talk to foreign journalists ? Why do you run away from Iranian journalists ? ''

Ahmadinejad left his real surprise for after all his interviews , when during his official address to the General Assembly he effectively accused the United States government of direct involvement in the atrocities of 9/11 . But in this case , President Obama had an opportunity during his subsequent interview with Kalbasi to respond to Ahmadinejad .

`` For him to make the statement here in Manhattan , '' President Obama said , `` just a little north of Ground Zero , where families lost their loved ones , people of all faiths , all ethnicities who see this as the seminal tragedy of this generation , for him to make a statement like that was inexcusable , '' Obama said .

Still , too many of Ahmadinejad 's statements went unchallenged last week -- particularly those that had to do with the vast array of atrocities in his own country . These are not problems that can be solved by handing to journalists a list of questions to ask a head of state with just too many skeletons in his closet to count . These are problems that American journalism as an institution faces as it tries to cope with and cover a far more globalized planet than we 've ever seen before .

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Hamid Dabashi .

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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad presides over regime that commits atrocities , says Hamid Dabashi

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He says American television interviewers are n't sufficiently challenging in their questions

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Dabashi says Ahmadinejad lied in denying Iranian woman was sentenced to stoning